This invention is directed to an earlobe piercing cartridge assembly for maintaining certain types of piercing earrings sterile during storage, handling and piercing. In particular, this invention is directed to an earlobe piercing cartridge assembly that permits an earlobe to be pierced by a broad variety of piercing earring designs which have ornamental heads with large diameters and thicknesses, or ornamental heads which are thin or ornamental heads made of a soft material, or ornamental heads having shapes that do not describe a circle.
Heretofore, numerous ear piercing systems have been developed that permit the piercing of an earlobe to provide a permanent opening in an earlobe for wearing a pierced earring. The earlobe piercing cartridge assembly created by the present inventor disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,030,507 enables an earlobe to be pierced by a piercing earring that remains sterile during shipping, storage and ear piercing.
The ear piercing system described and claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,030,507 is limited to piercing an ear with a piercing earring having an ornamental head that is either circular in shape, axially symmetrical about the piercing pin or cut from a shape that describes a circle and includes a diameter that is on the order of the diameter of the push rod of the plunger mechanism which propels the earring into the earlobe so that the piercing earring is able to withstand direct force from the push rod. In particular, by limiting the size of the ornamental head to the diameter of the push rod, the force of the push rod is uniformly applied about the surface of the ornamental head and, hence, prevents any damage to the ornamental head of the earring.
However, it is desirable to market ear piercing earrings as fashion accessories. Moreover, since for medical reasons the earrings which pierce the ear lobe should remain in the earlobe for several weeks, it is desired to permit the piercing of an earlobe with an earring that has a fashion type earring that is larger than the diameter of the push rod, is not necessarily symmetrical to the piercing pin, is considerably thinner in the axial direction than it is in diameter, or that is formed of a soft material such as karat gold and will not be damaged by the push rod during the ear piercing operation. Accordingly, an ear piercing system that obtains each of the advantages of the system described and claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,030,507, but also permits larger, thinner and more delicate earrings that do not necessarily describe a circle to be used with the same push rod assembly, is desired.